BamaCentral Courtside From Alabama's Home Loss to Texas

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 13 Alabama men's basketball fell to Texas 92-88 at home on Saturday night.

It was the Crimson Tide's second consecutive loss, as Alabama is 1-2 through its first three games of SEC play.

Alabama's highly touted backcourt duo of Labaron Philon Jr. (21 points) and Aden Holloway (18) combined for 39 points, but they each missed a pair of free throws. The Crimson Tide's performance at the charity stripe was a key takeaway from this one, as it went a very efficent 11 of 12 in the first half, but an abysmal 8 of 15 in the second half.

Texas was led offensively by Jordan Pope’s 28 points off 8-for-17 shooting, including six three-pointers to go along with three rebounds in his 30 minutes of action. While Pope shined with 20 points in the second half alone, fellow Longhorns guard Tramon Mark tallied 16 in the first period.

These two were heavily responsible for Texas building leads of at least 10 points on numerous occasions. That said, Alabama pulled within one point multiple times in the second half, but its mistakes at the line and also defensively led to the Crimson Tide's upset loss at home.

“Obviously not a good loss," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said during the postgame press conference. "When you’re trying to win the league, you can’t afford to give up a loss at home. You’ve got to give Texas a bunch of credit; I told our guys, this is going to be a much better team. Coach Sean Miller does a good job wherever he’s been. Those guys have some pride. He called his guys out in postgame press conferences and they turned it around.

"We have to look at what I’m doing to not get enough effort out of these guys. Texas just out-toughed us in the second half particularly, even in the start of the first half too. They got to the free throw line well, they shot 22 free throws in the second half, so we kept putting them at the line. We’re just not good enough defensively right now.

“We’ve got to be better. It seems like every time we play opponents, their backcourt has their way with us. (Vanderbilt’s) Tyler Tanner had 29 points, Jordan Pope had 28 today and he was averaging 12 going in and ended up with 28. We have to get significantly better on defense, starting right at the top.

"I have to look at what we’re doing, what our matchups are, what our game plan is. We have to get some players out that have some pride. I think we gave up 16 points in the first half off straight isolation plays. I have to get the right combination of guys out there with a little bit of a defensive mentality.”

Watch the above video as BamaCentral writers Katie Windham and Hunter De Siver provide thoughts and takeaways from the Alabama men's basketball team's 92-88 home loss against Texas on Saturday night.

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